The Betrayer

In the shadows of Holy Week, evil lurked.  It lucked in the hearts of the chief priests and elders.  It lurked in the heart of the religious establishment.  At times the evil threat stepped from the shadows to confront Jesus, but always it ran back into the place where it could do its work without being seen.  (Matthew 26:3-5).  When darkness fell each day across the city of Jerusalem, these keepers of the religious status quo were meeting, planning, and looking for some way to do away with the young rabbi who was turning everything upside down.   

They were no doubt men well acquainted with prayer.  Perhaps, it could be said that their prayers had nothing to do with the will of God in those days, but they would have seen it differently.  Though it was far from the truth, they must have perceived that God was surely on their side.  Into their world of protecting the status quo and their position of power within it, Judas Iscariot walked.  (Matthew 26:14). He was the answer to their prayers to the god of the status quo.  Some might say Judas was an evil man.  Some might say he was lost to the power of evil in order to do such a thing.  Such people are those who have never looked in the mirror which reveals the inner workings of their own heart.  

Judas was no different than those of us who hold our self righteous robes close around us lest someone think we are a kinsman to Judas.  Of course, we are.  We are his kinsman.  What one of us has not done something to betray the Christ?  What one of us has not looked after our own interest more than the concerns of the Kingdom of God?  What one of us lives without the stain of sin in our heart?  If there is one, let that person cast the first stone at Judas Iscariot while the rest of us bend our knees and weep tears of sorrow at our own betrayal of the Holy One called the Christ, the Son of God.